Charles Barkley Picks Spurs Duo to Become the NBA’s Next Stephen Curry & Klay Thompson

Charles Barkley used part of his Bill Simmons appearance to talk about walking away from television, saying next year will be his last on Inside the NBA unless Ernie Johnson changes his mind. But before leaving the spotlight, Barkley turned it toward San Antonio, where he sees two young guards ready to redefine the league. His bold claim: they could be the next Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.

“First of all, those two guards, I don’t want to see them for the next 10 years if I’m a guard in the NBA,” Barkley said on The Bill Simmons Podcast. “If I’m a guard in the NBA, I do not want to see them boys the next 10 years. They’re going to be the best. They’re going to be the new Stephen Klay.”

Castle and Harper are the young half of a Spurs core built around Victor Wembanyama, with De’Aaron Fox still holding the veteran point-guard role. Barkley had already pushed for their rise during the 2026 Finals, saying Mitch Johnson needed to go with Castle and Harper over Fox in Game 5. The Spurs stayed the course, lost 94–90 to the Knicks, and the series ended — but the young guards’ ascent did not.

Calling anyone the next Curry and Thompson is the heaviest backcourt compliment in basketball. Those two won four titles together, stretched defenses into extinction, and defined a decade. Barkley wasn’t saying Castle and Harper have the medals yet. He was saying the next 10 years of opposing guards belong to them.

Curry was the engine. Thompson was the off-ball scorer who punished tags. Castle is already closer to the engine. In 2025–26, he averaged 16.7 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 7.4 assists. In the playoffs, he was at 19.8 points and 6.7 assists per 36 minutes over 23 games, including a 32-point night against Portland and a 32-11-6 closeout in the conference semifinals.

Harper is the other half. As a rookie, he shot 50.5 percent from the field. In the playoffs he averaged 14.1 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 2.7 assists in 26.7 minutes, with 19.0 points per 36 on 51.5 percent shooting. He dropped 25 in the Game 5 Finals loss and had already posted a 24-11-6-7 line in a conference-finals Game 1, a box score in Magic/Bird/Dr. J territory.

Curry and Thompson became historic because of their three-point volume, 483 makes in 2012–13 alone. Castle and Harper aren’t there yet, with three-point rates in the low-to-mid 30s. But what they do share is a two-guard problem: one who can run the offense, one who can explode as the second scorer, both big enough to defend. That’s the statistical case Barkley says will look like Steph and Klay, over 10 years, not one summer.